Category Archives: Unseen Cinema

Colchester Film Festival presents ‘Unseen Cinema’ every month in Firstsite Colchester. Each screening is a taste of the very best feature films that weren’t screened or had a limited release in your local multiplex cinema.

This film is yet another vampire movie but don’t let that discourage you from watching it as it is not your typical movie dealing with the undead. Directors Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi also star in this brilliant representation of what the vampire life is really like through the style of a documentary, but in this case a mockumentary. Very much like the style of popular TV show “The Office” it makes for a funny and witty concept.

Viago, Deacon and Vladislav are vampires who are finding that modern life has its difficulties, such as paying the rent, keeping up with chores, trying to get into nightclubs and overcoming the flatmate conflicts. This all makes for a hilarious idea and there are great performances throughout. Even the occasional bad CGI effects just add to the comedy. The flat itself has a wonderful design giving it a kind of gothic theme working well with the individual characters living there.

With a small negative of the film being a lack of plot it really doesn’t matter in a film this funny. The comedy is perfect even with a few random moments here and there but the simple deadpan style works well. Watch this film with an open mind. It’s not your classic style of comedy – it’s something to get your teeth into.

Colchester Film Festival presents ‘Unseen Cinema’ every month in Firstsite Colchester. Each screening is a taste of the very best feature films that weren’t screened or had a limited release in your local multiplex cinema.

The dark twisted world of crime in L.A. unfolds here being filmed live to television news but who’s really behind that camera? Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a desperate man determined for work and here he muscles his way into the world of L.A. crime journalism, only to become sucked into it so much that he doesn’t care for the dead he is filming and merely sees the dead as profit for himself. This brilliant spine chilling performance from Jake Gyllenhaal is one of his best, making the audience afraid of his character. His eyes massive and bulging makes for a crazy look, which adds to the characters dark personality. His speech is smooth and suggestive making the character of Lou Bloom sinister and manipulative.

Full of excitement, action and in some cases dark humor Nightcrawler makes for an excellently well made film from writer and director Dan Gilroy. Although Jake Gyllenhaal is the star of the movie other performances such as Rene Russo (as TV-news veteran Nina) are also well done through out the movie. Director Dan Gilroy has captured the element of crime superbly in a stylish and realistic way making this film ever more believable and shocking.

Colchester Film Festival presents ‘Unseen Cinema’ every month in Firstsite Colchester. Each screening is a taste of the very best feature films that weren’t screened or had a limited release in your local multiplex cinema.

A revenge movie with a twist and a realistic plot is not very common but director Jeremy Saulnier pulls it off brilliantly in his film Blue Ruin. With a fantastic opening sequence that instantly captures the audience’s curiosity, we follow the story of a mysterious man named Dwight Evans (Macon Blair) who is living a quiet, lonely life until an act of vengeance takes place changing Dwight’s life into a convulsive fight for survival.

Director Jeremy Saulnier creates a dark and twisted realistic plot about revenge exploring the consequences an action can really make to ones self. With minimal amount of music to help us we have to rely on the camera and each shot works beautifully to capture the emotion of each character with the lighting and scenery. The whole look of the movie has a realistic style to it making it a believable story throughout the entire film. With a cast that is not very well known this works well in its favour as they all seem more believable than a big Hollywood star featuring in it. Devoid of any Hollywood cliché action scenes or over use of violence Blue Ruin challenges the stereotype of the redemption movie and gives us an idiosyncratic view of the true horror of crime.